ESA’s Mars Express has captured an astonishing array of landforms emerging from a thick winter blanket of frost as spring arrives in the south polar region of Mars. Some of these features are surprisingly dark compared with their icy surroundings, earning their nickname of ‘cryptic terrain’.

The Sentinel-1C satellite, the third satellite of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, has arrived at the European spaceport in French Guiana for liftoff on the Vega-C rocket at the end of 2024. The satellite will continue the critical task of delivering key radar imagery of Earth’s surface for a wide range of Copernicus services and scientific applications.